terms of readmission. The uncompromising hostility of the South, the Committee
asserted, made necessary adequate safeguards which should include the
disfranchisement of the white leaders, either Negro suffrage or a reduction of
white representation, and repudiation of the Confederate war debt with
recognition of the validity of the United States debt. These terms were
embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment, which was adopted by Congress and sent
to the States on June 13, 1866.

In the congressional campaign of 1866, reconstruction was almost the sole
issue. For success the Administration must gain at least one-third of one
house, while the radicals were fighting for two-thirds of each House. If the
Administration should fail to make the necessary gain, the work accomplished
by the Presidents would be destroyed. The campaign was bitter and extended
through the summer and fall. Four national conventions were held: the National
Union party at Philadelphia made a respectable showing in support of the
President; the Southern Unionists, guided by the Northern radicals met at the
same place; a soldiers' and sailors' convention at Cleveland supported the
Administration; and another convention of soldiers and sailors at Pittsburgh
endorsed the radical policies. A convention of Confederate soldiers and
sailors at Memphis endorsed the President, but the Southern support and that
of the Northern Democrats did not encourage moderate Republicans to vote for
the Administration. Three members of Johnson's Cabinet--Harlan, Speed, and
Dennison--resigned because they were unwilling to follow their chief further
in opposing Congress.

The radicals had plenty of campaign material in the testimony collected by the
Joint Committee, in the reports of the Freedmen's Bureau, and in the bloody
race riots which had occurred in Memphis and New Orleans. The greatest blunder
of the Administration was Johnson's speechmaking tour to the West which he
called "Swinging Around the Circle." Every time he made a speech he was